Has anyone had a good experience with lotus planted in the pond bottom (not potted)? I have seen some very nice red lotus in a large cement pond at a local bank, but some caution about invasiveness. We have a native lotus but I am not a purist. My new 1/2 acre pond has no plants yet and i was thinking that this might be a place to try lotus. Since I am already planning to tempt fate by stocking crappie and blue catfish, perhaps topping off the craziness with lotus would be the ticket. Not sure how to get a good start of an attractive red lotus either. Any shared experiences are appreciated.

Lotus prefer shallow water over the crown of the plant. Maximum of three (3) feet. Less deep is better.

This is a good nugget. I have a 700 gallon stock tank with some water lilies growing in it near my outdoor firepit with a small fountain for just something pretty to look at while enjoying a cold one around the pickers circle. I almost bought lotus, but didn't think I had enough
room in that small tank. Now that I also have a mini-pond in need of some plants, maybe I'll try one and see how it goes.

Which reminds me... I need to try and search for photos of pond plants folks have shared here in the archives.

Thanks again for the info...
/c

The hardy Lotus of my choise is the "Charles Thomas" Lavender-pink flowers yellow center. 21 petals. 14"-21" leaves. 6"-8" flowers. Grows 2ft-3ft tall.

I would grab up some very very cheap kiddy pools right now. In the spring I would plant the Lotus in the pool the end of May beginning of June. Try to plant them in less than 2 feet of water. They can freeze and will live. May not flower the first year or until they get going.

What I have seen here is people digging in a 2X8 along the foundation of their house. Lining the trough with rubber making a long 16" wide 8" deep place under the down spout of their eve trough. Every time it rains it will fill the small pond. The Lotus is planted so that there is 3-5"s of water over the dirt in the long pond.

Cheers Don.

Thank you for the variety suggestion.

I read somewhere that lotus can be a problem on dams. My dam is over 15 feet wide at full pool. Will lotus be a problem?

Hearing no horror stories with lotus in a dammed pond, I will try "Charles Thomas" and "Maggie Bell Slocum" next year. I may start them in containers since they need shallow water and I may need to move them if the water drops in the new pond during dry spells.

If you start lotus in an area where it is easy to paddle on a warm day their fast spreading runners are fairly easy to chase around and steer where you want them

If spectacular blooms that don't trot around so fast are your thing, pond iris might be more your thing

We have both blue and yellow flag iris. Just looking for something different in this pond, but do not want to risk the dam.

Lotus varieties have big impressive flowers. My experience with the small varieties is they will grow into 7 ft and maybe 8ft deep. Larger varieties will spread faster and grow deeper. Water clarity could affect the depth they grow. Hard packed clay bottom will slow their spread. In good conditions they can spread fast. Be prepared with approved herbicides with they get to areas where you do not want them.

That differs from what I read about water depth.

In my experience, a lot of the water depth data for lotus and hybrid water lilies is based on growth for in lily ponds not free ranging growth in an earth bottom pond. Buyer beware. Try some varieties, collect data including water clarity and bottom composition, and let us know your experiences.

Big strong lotus varieties will trot off into deep water, deeper than is convenient to paddle. Their pads will be more like waterlilies sitting on the water, rather than rising elegant on a stem.

In that situation something like a long rake would be needed to yank up their skinny rhizome, which can trot 6' a month

The cheap lotus seed you see on offer are likely to be the big species Nelumbo nucifera, whatever the name they are 'offered' as. Especially the 'blue' lotus offered by crooks out of singapore

Was planning to try "Charles Thomas" and "Maggie Bell Slocum". Anyone have water depth experience in an earth bottom pond with these varieties?

Give them a try and you can be our resident lotus expert. I am confident that glysophate will control their spread when in unwanted areas. An adventurous explorer always has to be the first one to embark into new territory and report back their results. Document well your adventure to enhance our learning.

Hoping that someone else had already been the guinea pig, but Guess it will be me. This is my 3rd pond, so its time to experiment! Its only a half acre and has a drain.

If the pond has softish mud, the lotus roots will be able to latch on to it and form a stable structure able to support the vertical stems

If the pond has a hard or dense floor, the lotus runners and roots are likely to be dragged around, raggedy when a steady breeze pulls at the foliage.

Do the varieties mentioned above spread by seed like American Lotus? That's the only real issue I have with A Lotus. As Bill said, it's easy to control with glyphosate, but it can be an ongoing shoreline chore to treat the single pop ups.

RAH, please keep us in the loop. I'm always looking for new color for our big pond.

I will try to post pictures as things develop. The pond is still mostly empty with the limited precipitation we have had. The bottom is clay like my other ponds. Water lilies seem to spread fine in this, but lotus may be different. Of course, muck and silt will inevitably wash in. It is fun to experiment with new things in the ponds!

Does anyone know a quality supplier of either of these 2 lotus varieties? I see pages where they are listed, but no prices or ability to order.

"Charles Thomas" and "Maggie Bell Slocum"

Lotus pods and blooms are really pretty, like Fireishot says, if you find a variety that is not so invasive I know my wife would like some.

I'll keep folks up to date if I can find a good supplier for "Charles Thomas" and/or "Maggie Bell Slocum" tubers?

Consider this lotus because it is said to thrive in a small continer thus spread would be less than some of the 'standard' lotus: Chawan Basu

Bill - You always give wise advice. My situation is that I have a lot of land in development for wildlife in relation to my time to do the work. Therefore, I try to do things that can take care of themselves as best as I can. The pond where I am planning to add the lotus is new and about 1/2 acre (still filling). This is the same pond that I am hoping to have a breeding population of blue catfish some day with black crappie as forage. My first pond is a BG/LMB pond, and my second pond is a YP/SMB pond (both also have RES). This pond is somewhat isolated so I do not expect the lotus to escape anywhere else. I am thinking that large lotus are worth a try and I can use herbicide to kill them off it does not work out. The pond also has a drain if my fish experiment goes south. I consider this an ill-advised experiment, but as a research scientist, I have occasionally accomplished what everyone else has deemed futile. If I fail, it is not a big deal, but if successful, maybe it will pave new ground?

P.S. My deepest wetlands with permanent water (for over a decade) were built after the FWS said the site would not hold water. They even have permanent fish populations although fish kills happen periodically.

I ordered a Charles Thomas lotus today for the new pond.

Cancelled my lotus order after company sent me an email question which included my credit card identification info including the whole card number! Had to inactivate my card and get a new one due to the security risk of sending this info in a non-encrypted email. Now I need to find another source of this lotus.

Update: Ordered "The President" lotus from another vendor.

RAH - Any update? Photos if appropriate?

What is your gut feel after one year. Good idea? I'm in the South so I'm more concerned that they'll get out of hand. My daughter likes to cook with lotus so I'd be looking for an appropriate cultivar.